UFC bantamweight Nick Denis retires, cites potential brain injuries

The 29-year-old Canadian fighter, who made an impressive UFC debut earlier this year, made the announcement on Thursday on his personal blog.

Denis cited concerns over potential brain injuries.

Denis (11-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC) signed with the UFC after posting a 10-2 record in organizations such as World Victory Road/Sengoku and KOTC. Then, in his UFC debut, he scored a 22-second knockout of Joseph Sandoval via stinging standing elbow strikes. But then came a submission loss to Roland Delorme in May in a back-and-forth bout.

Even before that defeat, Denis, a former Ph.D. student in biochemistry, had begun research into brain injuries following an especially vicious knockout loss to Marlon Sandro in 2009.

“After my first loss, a devastating knockout where Marlon Sandro dribbled my head on the canvas like a basketball, I did lots of research on concussions,” he wrote. “As a graduate student at the university of Ottawa, I had access to all peer reviewed scientific journals. No surprise to find that concussions = bad. However, I found something that had never occurred to me. Sub-concussive trauma. Basically, a blow to the head that doesn’t lead to a concussion. When it happens, you feel fine, and continue on.”

Denis learned, he wrote, that even athletes who don’t suffer concussions are still doing damage from the sub-concussive trauma.

Denis initially said he would quit fighting when he suffered one more concussion. But after reading about sub-concussive trauma and noticing blows were affecting him more and more during routine training sessions, he decided to call it quits.

“In the last couple years, and especially in the last few months leading up to my May 5 fight, while sparring I would notice that when I got hit, it would affect me more and more,” he wrote. “When I first started sparring I would run through punches unaffected. Not only that, but now training at Tristar, I am literally training with the world’s best. We are all training at the highest level, all for the same reasons. Could I fight in the UFC, against the best fighters in our solar system, literally trained killers, without sparring in training? Not really, so what was I to do? I have made the decision to retire.”

Denis said he’s not sure what he’ll do next, and he’s not sure he’s ready to resume his studies. But he said he’s comfortable with his decision to call it quits during what most would consider the prime of his career.

“I am a human being, and I was born with only one brain, and I want to take care of it so that I will recognize the ones I love when I get older,” he said.

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